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Diary of a Blue Check Negro
Being verified levels up your social media life. But is the smoke that comes with every tweet worth the distinction?
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
I’ll admit it. Sometimes, if I have a tense back-and-forth with someone on Twitter, I check their profile. If I see fewer than 100 followers and no blue check, I think, “Is this worth even talking about with you?”
If someone who has a blue check says they don’t think that way sometimes, they’re lying.
I’m a progressive. I’m an attorney. I am intentional about how I share my thoughts on race, sex, sexuality, gender-based oppression, and LGBTQ+ liberation.
And my views have been amplified over the past few years since a blue check now appears next to my Twitter profile.
Here’s how it began. During the George Zimmerman trial, I was disgusted by the way the attorneys were treating Rachel Jeantel, the friend of Trayvon Martin. I tweeted out something like:
“Of course a White man with power automatically believes anyone with less privilege is lying about their stories. This is the treatment of Black women all across America.”
I tweeted that line (and a few similar tweets), and nothing was the same for my life on Twitter. It was retweeted thousands of times, and I gained 1,500 followers overnight.
From then on, I continued making more insightful commentary. But make no mistake: This is my real life, not mere 280-character tweets. My life does not begin or end on Twitter.
When I began tweeting about the Zimmerman trial, I was two years out of law school and a fairly new attorney. I knew I didn’t want to go the traditional legal route, and I was excited about the unique opportunity to make substantive change in real time, even via online platforms.
But the chatter of social media is busy and loud. Everyone can be heard, which often means no one can be heard. It’s a democracy — which is good. But within that, there sometimes needs to be a hierarchy.
